Happy 75th to Mick Jagger

The Tweet of the Day for Sunday, December 18

The TrueBlueLiberal.org tweet of the day for Keith Richards' birthday came from @HeadsNews:

A rolling, stony 73rd to Keith Richards, born today in 1943. Tripping at Stonehenge, 1967. https://t.co/W2BWcZb8Fy pic.twitter.com/m2VT3YbBBL

— Heads News (@HeadsNews) December 18, 2016

Happy 73rd Birthday to Keith Richards.

In a year during which we lost a lot of great musicians, at least we know that Keith Richards, thanks to the long-term preservative effects of tobacco and heroin, will be with us until well past his hundredth birthday.

You got my heart you got my soul
You got the silver you got the gold
You got the diamonds from the mine
Well that's all right, it'll buy some time

Happy Birthday Keef.

"Ain't No Mountain High Enough"

A Hillary Clinton speech just ended on CNN.
While Donald Trump has been ending all his rallies with "You Can't Always Get What You Want" (against the Stones' wishes), Hillary ends with this:

It's Keef, innit?

There is still something to be said for the excitement of picking up a physical recording on the day of its release, hoping to get to the record store (if you are lucky enough to still have a record store) before they sell out of their first shipment.

So far I've only heard the song Trouble that was released online, but I'm expecting the hour in the car after work today to be more fun than usual. Because? Well, because it's Keef, innit? Author of one of my favorite books of the last five years, and not a bad guitarist either.

On the way to work, I was lucky enough to hear this interview with Keith Richards on NPR's Morning Edition. Following the Rules of Keith, even the stringent indoor smoking regulations of NPR and New York City were temporarily suspended for this humorous, informative, and touching conversation.

Happy Birthday to The Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World

50 years ago tonight, "The Rollin' Stones" played their very first gig at the Marquee Club on Oxford Street in London. They went on to meet with some success after adding the dropped "g".

 Here they are playing one of Robert Johnson's biggest hits in 1969:

The Devil's in the Details

If you have any love for the creative process or the nineteen sixties (and if you're a liberal reading this blog, you have tons of love for both!), please watch these two videos of the Rolling Stones recording Sympathy for the Devil in 1968, from the bare outlines of the song being sketched by Mick Jagger and Brian Jones on acoustic Gibsons, with the addition of Keith on a third acoustic and Charlie Watts. Then the experimentation with new instruments and drums and backup singers begins, and in the second video you slowly but surely start hearing the final lyrics, rhythms, and musical building blocks of the final (in)famous recording. Unfortunately we don't see Keith create what has to be one of the most recognizable guitar solos in the history of rock, but I still find these video documents from June 1968 hypnotizing.  I hope you do too.
Thanks to the Guitar World website, where these were posted earlier today.

Now I need to put on Beggars Banquet and listen to it with new ears.